


A Cold and Broken Hallelujah

by forestjotnar



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-15 20:26:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7237267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forestjotnar/pseuds/forestjotnar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When I realized I couldn't romance the best freedom fighter ever, I became so salty the Dead Sea was impressed. The Great Salt Lake tried to assassinate me. So I decided that fanfiction was in order. Anyways: </p><p>I'm sure we all know the story about getting out of the vault by now, so we're picking up more to the middle of the story. Corbin, known at Railroad HQ as Nox, is an enigma. Not much is known about him, most of the story being supplied by Deacon. And as everyone knows, Deacon lies. But Nox cares about Synths, and he's willing to walk into hell and back to save one. And isn't that what matters? </p><p>Glory doesn't think so. There's something off about him, something she doesn't know if she quite trusts. She doesn't know why she doesn't trust him, what feels off about him. But she's going to find out why he gets to her. Or someone is going to die while she tries.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ignorance isn't Bliss

"Do you know when they're coming back?" 

Dez looked up from the table, smoke curling around her face from the cigarette at the corner of her mouth. Carrington's mouth hardened, and he shook his head. The Railroad Alpha grabbed the smoke by the filter, tapping out ashes into the little ceramic ashtray holding down her map. With a glance, the good Doctor nodded, going back to his section of the basement that they had set up in. Tom was sleeping, or doing what passed for sleep for him, and the headquarters was mostly quiet. Glory hated the quiet. She liked noise, she liked the sound of the cities. Even if it was raider talk and the grunt and roars of super mutants. Just give her the noise. As the silence extended, and Desdemona kept staring, the synth finally cracked. 

"What?" She crossed her arms defensively, the leather and ballistic weave of her coat making noise as she set her shoulders, ready for whatever Dez was going to say to her. She knew she had been getting increasingly snippy since the new agent had started working with them, but she was going to be. They knew nothing about him, she'd never heard him say a single word, everything was told to them by Deacon while the new guy just nodded or shaking his head. She didn't like it. And from what she had heard from her own contacts on the surface, he wasn't just spending time with the Railroad. He was running with the Minutemen, had been seen with the Brotherhood. For all they knew, he was helping the Institute as well. Maybe he had worked for them originally, and was infiltrating the groups of the Commonwealth to destroy them from within. She knew she was starting to sound like Tom, but that didn't change the fact that it could be true. She didn't want to lose this place, and her friends, like what had happened at the Switchboard. 

"Why are you so worried about them coming back?" Dez crossed her own arms, taking another drag off of her cigarette. "Deacon has an exemplary field record. Nox hasn't failed a mission yet, and all our tourists have reported that he's polite, professional, and gets the job done. High Rise says he's one of the best he's seen. So what's the issue here?" 

"We don't know anything about him!" Glory exploded, and then realized that every eye in HQ was now on her. She dropped her voice, whispering angrily to Dez, "Nothing. He showed up, and as far as we know, he stole the trail and answers from someone else. Could have even been someone coming home from the Switchboard, or one of the safehouses. But no. He just shows up, and miraculously Deacon vouches for him as a 'big' player in the 'Wealth. He's ran with us, he's ran with the Minutemen, I mean, he fucking showed up in Brotherhood of Steel power armour! What do you think that means for us?" She leaned forward, planting her arms on the table and looking Dez in the eyes, "How do we know he isn't working for the Institute? Trying to get into every player he can, and tear them down from the inside, or help them tear them down from the inside. How do we know?" 

Dez had an answer, Glory knew that she did. But before she had a chance to give it, they heard someone coming down the back entrance. And they were coming fast and loud. Glory had her minigun before she had even thought about it too hard, and Desdemona was already pointing her pistol down the back hallway. Glory was ready, wanting to cycle up her weapon already. But there was still the possibility that whoever was coming down the hallway was a friend. 

"Fucking! Gierger counter's in the shop! Don't shoot me Glory!" At the sound of Deacons voice, Dez lowered her weapon. Glory pointed her barrels lower to the floor, but she didn't let go of it entirely. Just because it sounded like Deacon didn't mean it was really Deacon. But as the man turned the corner, she went from suspicious to concerned. Deacon's white shirt was covered in blood, and there was a bullet graze on his cheek that was still bleeding slowly. That wasn't like Deacon. She'd never seen him bleed, not even during Switchboard or any subsequent operations. But he was bleeding now, and he collapsed against the wall, using the brick and plaster to hold himself up. Carrington was already on the move, stimpaks and bandages in hand as he moved towards the injured man. 

"Deacon." Dez's voice cracked over the rising noise as agents woke up from sleep, Tinker Tom starting to have a freakout in his corner, all the chaos that could come from this short of thing. "Where is Nox?" 

Deacon was sitting on the ground now, eyelids fluttering as he looked at Dez, Carrington batting his hands away as the pompadoured man tried to fix his wounds on his own. "He's still up there. Sent me to get ya." Deacons head rolled back on his neck, and he fought to straighten it back up, "Raider gang. Couple of the guys said something about Kendall Hospital, you know, the place we cleared last week?" Deacon laughed weakly, "Guess we didn't clear it out as much as we thought." 

Desdemona was already in her 'boss mode' as Tom called it, ordering Carrington to take care of Deacon, get him healed up. She yelled for Tom to start getting weapons ready and agents outfitted just in case. And then she looked at Glory. And Glory knew what she was going to be told to do. So she lifted her minigun, butting it against her hip and nodding. Dez returned the gesture, tapping Glory's armored plating with her knuckles. 

"Be safe. But bring him back. Try for alive, but if you can't, I don't want some feral mongrel eating one of my agents." Dez smirked, eyes twinkling despite the worry on her face, "Besides, Piper would never forgive us if we didn't at least have a body for burial."

Glory nodded, taking a deep breath as she began to jog up the back entrance, minigun banging against her thigh as she did. She had no idea how close the raiders were to their back door, no idea if Nox was even still alive. But trust him or not, he was Railroad. And she would not leave another member of the organization behind. Not after Tommy. Not after everyone else that had died and been left to rot at the Switchboard. And then she was at the door, and she could already hear the gunfire. Sporadic bursts of it, but that wasn't what she was listening for. No, she knew the sound she wanted to hear. And then there it was. A sharp whisper crack, the sound of a .308 round bursting from one of Tom's special sniper rifles. Nox was alive. He might have been hurt, he might be bleeding out. But for right now, he was still fighting. With a twist of the the doorknob, she opened it just enough that it wasn't going to hold if she pressed against it. 

With a press of the trigger, the minigun started to wind up, and she shouldered open the door. The moment she was out, her gun was going off and Raiders were falling. They were everywhere it seemed. She knew that trying to take back safehouses was going to end up like this one day. Carrington had brought it up as well. But Dez had needed to know, wanted to know. And now this was happening. A Raider came at her side with a machete, and she knew she couldn't turn the gun in time. Before she had a chance to try to take a strike to her shoulder, she heard the same whisper crack shot again, and the Raider's head burst open like a ripe melon being stepped on by a Brahmin. Nox was well enough to be picking shots, and Glory nodded in thanks as she kept moving forward. Anything that came from the side or behind, she heard him take down. It made her job that much easier, knowing that her back was covered. Judging by where the fire came from, he was on top of the Church. She went up there from time to time, and knew that the old bell tower made the perfect snipers nest. And He was showing that he knew how to make it work. Which only made her more nervous about who he actually was. There was an ability to shoot, that was easily explained. But as she watched three raiders fall to quick and precise sniper fire while she reloaded, she knew this was more. It took training to drop bodies in that quick of succession, without hesitation and with headshots for all of them. 

The Raiders broke, running back into the city, either to disappear into the Commonwealth or join other Raider gangs. She didn't care. All that mattered was that they were gone, and they would track them down later. If they even needed to be tracked down. She let her minigun hang from her arm, resting the bottom of the barrels against the ground as she took deep heaving breaths, trying to get her heart rate under control. As she did, she looked up to the bell tower, where she watched as a barrel chested man began to climb out of the bell tower, rifle slung across his back. She wouldn't admit that she found it impressive that he clung to the railing with one hand before swinging himself out to the good portion of the roof, letting himself fall right and slide down the tiles a bit before he stopped. 

Then he stood, the black leather armour covering his body looking blood or sweat damp in places, and he pushed back long black hair that had escaped the weird bun knot thing he did on the back of his head. She could feel his dark eyes boring into her from all that distance away, and she could see him harden his jaw as he headed for the ladder that would bring him back to the ground. Oh he was pretty. 

Oh how she hated him.


	2. Stop, Hey, What's that sound?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can you hear the people sing?   
> Not even a little bit.

" _Fuck._ " 

Glory took some kind of pleasure in the fact that when she stuck Nox with the stimpack, he jumped. It meant he was human, made noises when he was hurt or annoyed. She'd always hated the 'strong silent type'. Maybe that was one of the reasons she had so many issues with him. He was annoying in the stereotype department. With a sigh, she unfolded a bandage, pressing it down onto a wound that was going to be a slow healer. She knew that it would be. Dez had brought up a few more of their agents, and they were disposing of the Raider bodies and salvaging whatever equipment would be worth anything to them. Most of it was junk, pipe pistols and scrap metal armour, but some of it could be good. Tom always had a knack for taking junk and turning it into mission capable tools. With a sharp tug, she tightened the bandages down, stepping back. 

"All right, you're not going to die. You gonna sit there and sulk, or help the others that are cleaning up your mess?"

Nox rose to his feet, and Glory was briefly distracted by his sheer size. He wasn't a tall man, not by any means. Tinker Tom was a couple inches taller than him, and Glory was close to his height. But he was _broad_ , rippling shoulders filling out his leather armour, making him look like a squat super mutant. Deacon had once referred to him as the human version of a mutant hound, deep chested and pugnacious. She held her breath, noticing the fire in his eyes. Maybe he'd say something else. Just one word wasn't enough, she wanted to get another rise out of him, hear that deep voice rumble like thunder as he glowered at her. It was part of the game with him now. He was like an annoying terminal she couldn't crack, and eventually she was going to find that passcode. 

But instead, Nox shouldered his rifle, brushing past her as he started to help their other agents clean up the area. Glory was disappointed, but she kept her grumbling to a minimum as she started to pick up bodies and carry them into an open crypt. They didn't need any super mutants or mongrels smelling the rotting meat and coming to get a free snack. It was ugly, smelly, and just downright disgusting work, but it had to be done. They worked mostly in silence, quick little jokes to lighten the mood of body disposal and grunts of exertion as some of the Raiders were heavier than others. But finally, the work was done, and they moved the scavenged equipment into their little hideout. 

Glory came in just in time to witness a patented Tinker Tom episode, telling them all how the Institute had sent synth Raiders and they had cameras on all of them and they were coming soon. It was easy enough to ignore him, but after Switchboard, it was hard not to take him seriously. So she helped with that, finally calming him down by giving him something to drink from his private stash, the drinks she and Dez had lovingly drugged months ago to make sure they could get Tom to hush when they really needed him to. When he finally went down, she tucked him into his bed, brushing a gentle hand across his forehead to smooth out his worry lines. Tom was like a big brother to Glory, and she hated what he was going through. Carrington said that pre-War there could have been treatments, medications, things that would have helped him out, helped him with some semblance of normality. But as the Commonwealth stood, there was nothing they could do for Tinker Tom. Just be there with him and make sure he didn't hurt himself as the paranoia got worse and worse. Glory sighed softly, pressing a gentle kiss to the mans forehead before rising again. 

Dez and Nox were by the main table, discussing something. Glory caught whispers of the conversation as she got closer, and she wasn't liking what she was hearing. 

"Carrington says that Deacon will be out of commission for a few weeks. There's a few broken bones that need time to heal, and he doesn't want much pressure put on them." 

Nox nodded, his bull like neck straining the collar of his shirt as he looked down at the table. "I have some other friends that can watch my back. Gotta get to Sanctuary first."

Glory paused at the pillar she was next to, listening. His voice was strange. It was deep, but had a rasp to it that made every word sound like it caused him some sort of pain. She leaned against the pillar, swearing she could feel the rumble of thunder everytime he spoke. She didn't like it. Not one bit. And then Dez was speaking again, and she froze. 

"Have you given any thought to Sanctuary being a part of our safe house network?"  
"There are synths that live in Sanctuary. Nick stays there often, Curie lives there and does her work. But I don't think it's right for a safehouse." She heard him clear his throat, heard a bottle opening and him take a drink. "There are families there. People running from all this dirty shit, and I don't want to put them in danger." 

"But-"  
"I didn't say I didn't have any idea for a good safehouse though. Vault 111." 

Glory was shocked, and she was sure Dez was as well. They had never thought about using a Vault for a safe house, merely because they were one entrance only. But they were highly defensible, if done right. Dez voiced her concerns as Glory finally abandoned her eavesdropping. 

"But what are you going to do if the Institute finds the Vault? There's no way out after we go in, and then it becomes a siege." 

A harsh cough from Nox alerted Dez to the presence of Glory, but she still looked at him expectantly, awaiting an answer. Finally, he answered. 

"With the help of my engineer and a few people that are experts in hydroponics, we've refitted the Vault as a living space instead of a science experiment. They'd have to trade out for meat, but vegetables won't be a problem. We picked up some mining equipment from a Raider group, and expanded the vault to accommodate more people and storage, and added escape routes out for them." 

Nox massaged his throat, wincing in pain as Dez mulled it over. Finally, she nodded, a rare gleam in her eyes. 

"I say we go ahead with it. I want you to take an agent to Sanctuary, so we can get an experienced opinion on how well you've set everything up, and so they can set up the right markers and railsigns in the area." Dez lit a new cigarette, taking a deep inhale before she breathed out, the haze of smoke surrounding her face. "But as Deacon is off duty for now, I want you to take Glory with you." 

Glory expected him to protest. Instead, he simply nodded, whistling softly. Deacon came out of nowhere, and Nox started making complicated hand signs at him. It was far beyond any simple gestures that agents in the field used to stay quiet and complete a mission. Deacon started nodding, and then began making the another intricate series of gestures back at him, though Deacons didn't look as fluid or as sure as Nox's had. Glory had no idea what any of it meant, and judging by the perplexed look on Dez's face, she didn't either. Finally, Deacon nodded, index finger moving from by his stomach to touch his chin. Nox smiled briefly, mimicking the gesture. Deacon looked at them both, taking a deep breath. 

"So here's the deal. He's fine with all this, he just wants to make sure that Glory understands that she's not to try and convert anyone in Sanctuary to the Railroad. That's not the place for it. Sanctuary is for people that are on the run, getting away from the harshness of the 'Wealth, and he doesn't want her dragging them back into the mix."

Dez nodded, agreeing to the conditions. Glory knew better than to argue at this point. They had no one else to send with him, especially with Deacon having to stay at the HQ until he was better. Nox had already wandered off, starting to stock up with Carrington. She hoped he would leave Tom alone, let the man get some more sleep. As she went to grab her own supplies, Dez stopped her and pulled her to the side. 

"This is more than checking out the Vault. This is for you to either let go of your suspicions or to find the truth of them. If he proves to be an agent of the Institute, do what you have to to protect the Railroad."

Glory nodded, a feral grin stretching across her face. She didn't want him to be a traitor, not at all. But she couldn't deny a certain attraction to fighting someone that was more like here. Not some worthless scavver or poor gen-1, but an actual fighter. That excited her. But as she left Dez, she was stopped again at her bedroll. This time by Deacon, and he looked impatient to talk to her.

"Look Glory-"   
"Not now Deacon. I have to get ready to follow your little friend across the entirety of the Commonwealth to check out his hole in the ground." She grabbed an empty pack, quickly filling it with one of her premade mission kits.   
"Glory, will just listen for a damn second."   
She stopped at that. Deacon wasn't normally brisk like that, he always had a joke or a story to get your attention. But this time, he was serious, pressing a small and water stained book into her hands. She tilted it into the light, mouthing the words on the cover.   
"A beginners guide to American Sign Language?" She looked at Deacon questioningly, raising an eyebrow at him. 

"It's not that Nox is silent because he's an ass," Deacon looked at her, and she could feel his eyes boring into her from behind his sunglasses, "Nox doesn't speak because he's deaf."

Glory looked at him, mouth open.   
_"Fuck."_


End file.
